A small Miami-based company said the U.S. government has given it permission to lay the first optical communications fiber from the U.S. to Cuba. That could drastically cut the cost of calling the island nation and make the Internet more accessible to Cubans.

Treasury Department officials were unavailable to confirm that TeleCuba Communications Inc. has received approval, which is necessary even though the Obama administration eased long-standing restrictions on telecom links to Cuba in April.

TeleCuba said Tuesday that its cable will be operating by the middle of 2011. It still needs final permission from the Cuban government to land the cable.

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A government official in Cuba, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly, said Cuba has been waiting for the U.S. to approve a "group of companies" seeking to build telecommunications infrastructure. But the official could not confirm whether Cuba would ultimately give them permission to enter the market.

Cuba is the only nation in the Western Hemisphere that is not linked to the outside world by fiber optics. Instead, it relies on slow, expensive satellite links. While the cable could make calling very cheap, it would be up to the Cuban government to set rates, and it could keep restrictions on Internet access as well.

The government of Venezuela, a Cuban ally, has announced that it is building a fiber to Cuba, which could beat TeleCuba by getting to the island next year. But construction hasn't started, and TeleCuba has the advantage of a much shorter route: 110 miles, compared to 966 miles from Venezuela.

"We might get into a little race there with them," said Luis Coello, CEO of TeleCuba.

TeleCuba projects the costs of its fiber at $18 million, which will be financed by private investors, while Venezuela said this summer that it is planning to spend $70 million.

TeleCuba's fiber will follow the route of a defunct 1950s copper telephone cable from Key West to Cojimar, an eastern suburb of the Cuban capital, Havana. Apart from carrying communications, it will have scientific and weather sensors.

The capacity of the cable will be 8 to 10 terabits per second, enough for more than 160 million simultaneous phone calls. The last operational copper cable from Florida to Cuba could carry 144 phone calls at the same time.

­A major challenge for the European economy over the next five years will be to achieve the right political and regulatory environment to foster investments in new high-speed telecommunications networks, Telefónica Chairman César Alierta said today.

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Alierta called on European policymakers to focus their efforts on speeding up the rollout of the next generation networks that lie at the heart of a future knowledge-based society and economy. The first step is to urgently create a regulatory climate that stimulates infrastructure investment, he said.

Telefónica believes the challenge going forward will be to create confidence in the markets so that large-scale investments in new high-speed networks take place in Europe, where the bloc is falling behind North America and Asia.

"The Information Communications Technology (ICT) sector is a complex ecosystem which is changing rapidly and produces constant innovation which makes it so important to modern economies," Alierta said. "But there will be no new applications and services - nothing like a European Facebook or Google - if we do not achieve the best state-of-the-art infrastructure for communications in Europe."

Alierta said EU policymakers could foster an investment-friendly climate by creating the appropriate incentives for investments with a forward-looking regulatory framework. He also called for freeing up the necessary spectrum for new mobile services as soon as possible.

The deliberalisation process has been a great European success story and resulted in the creation of today's competitive communication markets in Europe, in which consumer prices have been constantly decreasing in the last decade.

But Alierta warned that while Europe is global leader in telecoms - particularly mobile communications where the region has the highest penetration and coverage of any major market - it significantly trails the USA in the development of Internet applications and Software and Asia in terms of hardware and computer manufacturing.

Indian newspaper The Economic Times claims that the country is unlikely to keep to its planned schedule for the licensing of 3G spectrum.

Regulator the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) was expected to release an Information Memorandum (IM) containing details for the auction on 29 September but has failed to do so. As a result, the 8 October deadline for the submission of questions has been postponed, making it seem likely that the December deadline for completion of the process may also be pushed back. Officials from the watchdog say that the primary reason behind the delay in releasing the IM is that they are yet to map out the availability of 3G airwaves across most circles.

The number of fixed broadband connections in Chile grew by 10.4 percent in the first half of 2009, compared to the year-earlier period.

Chile had 1.6 million broadband lines at end June, up from 1.46 million in December 2008, according to the Cisco Broadband Barometer. The growth was mainly due to new internet service offerings targeting the lower socio-economic segment, as well as new prepaid service packages and low cost offers. Broadband penetration in Chile is the highest among Latin American countries, at 9.7 percent. The residential market continues to lead, with 85 percent of the overall fixed broadband connections in Chile concentrated in this segment, while the remaining 15 percent are corporate customer lines. Around 31 percent of Chilean households have broadband connections. Nearly 70 percent of the total broadband internet subscribers use speeds of over 512 Kbps or higher.

The number of residential mobile broadband subscribers grew by 70 percent over this year's first half, to 395,000 mobile internet users at the end of June. Around 74 percent of the mobile broadband internet connections belong to individual users.

­Uganda's politicians have voted down a proposal to scrap a sales tax on mobile phones following concerns from the government that it needs the revenues the taxes generate.

"I request Parliament to reject the proposal to scrap taxes on mobile phone because it will affect our revenue," Finance Minister, Ms Syda Bbumba said.The opposition politicians who proposed scrapping the taxes had argeued that expanding mobile phone usage into rural areas would be affected by the tax.

Mr Oduman MP said, "The issue of losing revenue doesn't arise because the government will be charging more taxes on airtime used by mobile phone users, hence widening the tax base."

Phone dealers have long argued for the tax to be scrapped, citing increased levels of grey imports and smuggling from the neighbouring countries. The concerns were heightened with neighbouring Kenya lowered its taxes on mobile phone handsets earlier this year.

The GSM Association has long called for a lowering of taxes on mobile phone handsets and airtime, arguing that the lower costs boosts the user base and hence leads to a net increase in revenue for governments.

A recent report from the GSMA said that mobile subscribers across East Africa are taxed at some of the highest levels world-wide. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania impose mobile-specific taxes which when added to VAT can result in their respective consumers facing taxes as high as 30% in Uganda and Tanzania, and 27% in Kenya, considerably the highest rates in Africa (and the among the highest across the world as a whole).

The Zimbabwe Chronicle reports that eight companies have been granted licences to operate international voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) telephony services.

Gideon Magodo of the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) told the newspaper that the regulator had received applications from eleven organisations seeking Internet Access Provider Class A licences (allowing data, internet and VoIP services), including six new applications and five wishing to upgrade from Class B (data and internet only) to Class A concessions. Magodo said POTRAZ had granted new licences to Aquiva, Dandemutande and Taurai Zimbabwe while it had agreed to upgrade licences held by state-run incumbent telco TelOne (which owns ISP ComOne), data network operator Africom, ISP Ecoweb (owned by cellco Econet Wireless), Powertel, the telecoms wing of the state electricity utility, and ISP Telecontract. Regulations dictate that licensees must be at least 51% Zimbabwean-owned.

The watchdog announced earlier this week that it would now place a moratorium on issuing VoIP licences because the sector was saturated. Until the recent licensing, companies were restricted to providing domestic IP-based services whilst international VoIP calls were not permitted, although it was previously reported that Africom was allowed to offer the service for corporate customers. Furthermore, it was reported that POTRAZ had approved an international calling card service from Econet which used an IP platform.

At present, MVNOs are predominantly a feature of well-developed telecom markets  most notably in Western Europe, North America and a small number of other countries.

While MVNOs have succeeded in growing their share of these mature markets, the growth trend is obscured when looking at the global picture. Worldwide the statistics show that the growth in MVNO subscribers has not kept pace with the overall growth in wireless subscribers. But this is misleading. Globally, growth in wireless subscribers has been driven predominantly by explosive growth in a small number of developing countries, such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan. These are countries in which MVNOs are either prohibited or at a nascent stage of development.

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To clarify the numbers, in 2003 MVNOs accounted for 7% of subscribers in Western Europe and North America. At the end of June 2009 wireless subscribers had grown by almost 60% in these two regions to reach 800 million, and MVNOs share had increased to over 9%. In contrast, from 2003 to mid-2009 the number of wireless subscribers in regions other than Western Europe and North America more than quadrupled to reach some 3.5 billion. However, MVNOs have yet to make much impact in these higher growth markets: outside of Western Europe and North America, their share of the market remains less than 0.5%. So while MVNOs have been growing strongly in Western Europe and North America, those two regions account for an ever-smaller portion of the worlds wireless subscriber base  it slipped from almost 40% to less than 20%.

In summary the numbers show that globally MVNOs share of wireless subscribers has dropped from almost 3% in 2003 to its current level of just over 2%. But the reality is also that MVNOs have managed to gradually increase their market share in well-developed mature markets, while gaining some important toeholds in other markets around the world.

In 2003, Western Europe and North America accounted for well over 90% of all MVNO subscribers and, despite some growth elsewhere, these two regions still account for over 80% of the total. TeleGeographys latest research predicts that MVNO growth will gain momentum all around the world over the coming five years. 'As markets approach maturity and as regulatory regimes look to increase competition and to better serve diverse populations, MVNOs will be allowed to launch services in many new countries,' said TeleGeography senior research analyst David Leach. While they will continue to account for only a small percentage of wireless subscribers, TeleGeography forecasts this will be a growing market niche. 'Future MVNOs can learn from the successes and failures of the past five years, and as they do, we predict that the global MVNO subscriber base will more than double in size over the next four years,' added Leach.

Mauritius Telecom (MT), which has already connected to the South Africa Far East fibre-optic cable system to increase its international connectivity, has revealed its intention to lay a second cable, the companys chief executive officer Sarat Lallah said last Friday.

The investment for the Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION) fibre-optic cable is being supported by a consortium made up of Orange Madagascar, MT and France Telecom, Lallah said. For its part, the Mauritian fixed line incumbent has invested around EUR7 million in phase one of the project which is expected to cost a total of EUR37 million. The CEO went on to say the second phase of the LION project will connect the cable with the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa where it will then be connected to the South Africa-East Africa-South Asia-Fibre Optic Cable (SEACOM), a 17,000km cable which reaches up to Marseilles in France. LION will also be connected to the 4,500km fibre-optic cable TEAMS (The East African Marine System), a Kenyan government partnership with the Emirates Telecommunication Establishment which links Mombasa to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. In the future LION is envisaged to be connected to the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), a 10,000km link which, once completed, will connect some 13 African countries, Lallah said.

Austrian minister for infrastructure Doris Bures has unveiled new initiatives to expand broadband networks and broadband applications in Austria.

The initiatives aim to support the deployment of superfast broadband in Austria, partnering with all stakeholders, the telecom industry and the Austrian telecommunications regulator RTR. The Austrian government wants to have nationwide coverage of broadband at up to 25 Mbps by the end of 2013. With the new telecom law, a judicial framework for the broadband expansion has been set and the minister has ordered a feasibility study for fibre-optic cadastre, results of which will be published in 2010. Bures also unveiled a support package of up to EUR 40 million for broadband deployment in rural regions and development of new services and applications. Earlier this year, Telekom Austria announced that will it invest up to EUR 1 billion in deploying fibre, replacing the old ADSL technology. The first pilot projects will start before the end of this year.

The number of internet users is Algeria is estimated at 4.5 million, or around 12.8 percent of the population, according to a recent survey.

Three-quarters of internet users said the net is an indispensable tool, and 90 percent said they are online daily for at least the past year. The average time spent online is two hours. Men (74.2%) use the internet more often than women (25.8%), while six out of ten internet users are below the age of 40. Two-thirds of internet users have a university-level education of at least BAC+1, while almost 70 percent are employed and 19 percent are students. Just over half are located in the centre of the country, with 29 percent in Algiers. Among the popular online activities, 82.6 percent use e-mail, 42.5 percent use instant messaging services, 33.8 percent visit discussion forums, 33 percent use internet telephony and 9.9 percent use video conferencing.

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Over 80 percent of internet users look at the press online, 19.9 percent listen to the radio and 11.4 percent watch TV. Almost 60 percent say they use social networking sites, with Facebook by far the most popular. Almost two-thirds said they use the internet from home, while another quarter connect from work and 6.5 percent use internet cafes or youth centres. However, 72 percent say they are unsatisfied with the bandwidth of their connection at home, and 79.7 percent say the line is frequently disrupted. Just over 50 percent said the price of an internet subscription is affordable, while 43.8 percent find it expensive. Just over 30 percent of internet users say they also go online from their mobile phones, but find the speed of the connection lacking and the service too expensive. Seventy-nine percent said they use mobile internet for downloading ringtones, games and wallpapers, while 58.8 percent look at their e-mail. Nedjma had the highest number of users, with 62.7 percent of mobile internet respondents. Only 5.4 percent of the internet users said they participated in the government's Oursatic programme for buying a computer. While the project was considered interesting, they found the process of buying equipment too expensive, with too many administrative burdens, and banks unwilling to facilitate to the process.

The survey WebDialn@ was conducted on popular websites and in a mailing to 7,000 people, and collected almost 6,000 responses. The survey was conducted by web consulting group Med& Com and online polling group Ideatic.

This is a novel concept, instead of billing for a text message of 160 characters like most mobile operators, Indian mobile operator Tata Docomo has just launched a short messaging service, called Diet-SMS, which enables customers to pay on a per-character basis.

The cost of any Diet-SMS will be only one paise per character used (100 paise= 1 rupee), thereby providing complete value to customers. Deepak Gulati, President Tata Docomo said in a statement  We broke the per-minute pricing paradigm for voice calls when we launched our services. With Diet-SMS, we are doing it again, this time on the SMS front.Tata Docomo is a frontrunner in the pay-per-use business model in the Indian mobile telephony segment. It will not charge for space between words!

Tata Docomo has launched services in eight telecom circles and a countrywide rollout is expected to be completed this year.

In all of the eight circles where we have launched our GSM services, we made the promise of introducing path-breaking innovative products and services, and never-before tariff options. Diet-SMS is another way of fulfilling that promise, said Tata Docomo president Deepak Gulati.

The remaining 22 percent of Millicom Lao is owned by the government of the Laos government. The acquisition price is estimated to reach USD 66 million, based on the enterprise value of Millicom Lao of USD 102 million. The acquisition is scheduled for completion by end-2009. With a population of 6.5 million inhabitants, mobile penetration in Laos currently stands at 23 percent. According to Boris Nemsic, VimpelCom CEO, the operator's entry into Laos is the next logical step in the company's international expansion strategy. Laos provides a complement to VimpelCom's existing operations in Vietnam and Cambodia and fits into the company's strategy of building a solid Southeast Asian cluster, Nemsic said. The VimpelCom Group currently operates in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, as well as Vietnam and Cambodia.

The potential market for broadband connections of at least 50Mbps is 900,000 households in the Netherlands, according to a report from Telecompaper.

The consumer survey, conducted in August, shows that 900,000 households would like to have at least 50Mbps download within four years. The report 'Dutch Consumer Connected Q3 2009' was released to coincide with the FTTH Netherlands conference sponsored by Telecompaper. The survey found DSL is currently the most used technology with 49 percent of the market, followed by cable with 40 percent, fibre-optics with 4 percent and other technologies at 6 percent. Around 5 percent of respondents said they still use a dial-up connection. Asked about the most important element of a broadband connection, 55 percent said price, while 37 percent appreciate the possibility of a dual-play plan of internet and telephony. Over a quarter (26%) said that a download speed of at least 50Mbps is also important, while 8 percent want a minimum upload of 8Mbps.

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Over half the respondents (51%) said they don't know whether they will need a connection of at least 50Mbps, while 31 percent said no and 15 percent answered yes. Looking at how long they will wait for such a connection, the figures suggest that around 460,000 households would like at least 50Mbps within 12 months and 730,000 within 24 months. The total group, representative of 900,000 homes, expects to have such a connection within four years. A majority (58%) said they don't know what kind of network technology they will use with the fast connection. Of the remaining respondents, 42 percent expect to use cable, and the same percentage said fibre-optics. The categories DSL, wireless and other took 5 percent. Fibre has more preference among men, high incomes and DSL users than by women, low income groups and cable subscribers.

Vodafone Qatar has revealed that since launching services in July it has signed up 100,000 customers, 50% of which have taken post-paid plans. The companys GSM network covers 99% of the population and provides competition to Qatar Telecom (Qtel).

Vodafone says it is confident of achieving a 40%-60% market share within ten years. At the end of June 2009 Qtel boasted 1.9 million subscribers.

British fixed line incumbent BT has confirmed that the first official commercial rollout of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services will take place in January 2010, ISPreview reports. The telco says it expects to extend the service to approximately 1.5 million homes and businesses by the middle of next year, rising to ten million or more by 2012, and expects to invest around GBP1.5 billion (USD2.47 billion) on the deployment. No final pricing details have been revealed for the service, which will offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps, with uploads speeds expected to be between 10Mbps and 15Mbps.

BT has previously released two separate lists detailing a total of 98 exchanges where the service will initially be rolled out, including Welsh capital Cardiff and two exchanges in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

The Kenyan government is not minded to lower taxes on mobile phone airtime, despite increasing calls from the mobile network operators for action. The country currently levies a 26 percent duty on airtime top-ups.

"The duty paid is important to treasury; if the government scraps the duty, the books will not balance," Uhuru Kenyatta, the minister in charge of finance told IDG News Service.

Instead of addressing the prospect of lowering the tax, Kenyatta chose to dwell on the advantages that submarine fiber-optic cables will provide for the mobile phone services sector.

"We expect arrival of the TEAMS, SEACOM and EASSY submarine cables to reduce cost of communication and solve the problem of insufficient bandwidth," the minister said.

A report commissioned by the GSM Association in Oct 2007 noted that it airtime taxes were lowered or removed, government tax receipts would actually increase as more people will connect and use mobile services, boosting Value Added Tax receipts and stimulating wider economic activity.

Etisalat introduced new mobile broadband packages offering more than double the bandwidth at significantly reduced costs.

The subscribers can now avail 10 MB instead of 2MB, 100 MB instead of 50, and 1GB mobile internet packages instead of 120 MB, all at the same price. It is available for both laptop and surfing from mobile phone. The new mobile broadband packages of 1GB and 5GB have also been introduced. Apart from this, the subscribers can also opt for a pay as you use package which is automatically activated without any need to subscribe when customers use mobile internet.

Hutch Lanka, the Sri Lankan mobile operator, has reported a subscriber base of 722,000 at March09-end, down from 887,000 in the previous quarter and 1.289 million a year earlier.The drop has been due to the adverse economic conditions and tough competition among operators in the country, parent company Hutchison Telecom said.

The annual decline was also due to measures taken last year to tighten customer registration, required by local regulation. ARPU dropped 9.8% in Q1 to LKR 148, mainly due to tariff reductions required to preserve competitiveness in the market in response to competitors actions. MOU increased to 77 from 74 in the previous quarter and from 60 in Q1 2008.

Vodafone is expected to use Vodacom as its vehicle to expand into developing markets in Africa now that it has secured control of the company. Vodacom CEO, Pieter Uys said that the company is looking to take advantage of falling prices to increase its footprint.

"If you look at the world there aren't many growth opportunities around; Africa is one of them," Uys told the Bloomberg news agency. "All markets in Africa offer potential for consolidation." Vodafone "has committed to use us" to enlarge its sub-Saharan business and "support us" on potential acquisitions, he said.

Vodafone has just increased its holding in Vodacom from 50% to 65%, while South African landline operator, Telkom floated its 35% stake onto the local stock market earlier this week.

Vodacom has operations in South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho, DR Congo and Mozambique. Through its Gateway Communications subsidiary, it offers satellite services in 40 African countries.

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Uys also added that having a sole dominant shareholder would speed up the decision making process as it would no longer have to submit plans to two separate boards for approval. In addition to acquisitions in new markets, there is also the opportunity for consolidation on crowded markets where Vodacom already operates.

In late 2006, Vodafone and Telkom agreed to amend a long-standing shareholder agreement which had blocked Vodacom from investing in operations north of the Equator.

Orascom Telecom has reported that its mobile subscribers in North Korea nearly doubled in Q209 even though the ARPU dipped. Koryolink, in which Orascom owns a majority stake, ended June with 47,863 subscribers, twice more than what the operator had at April-end, when the total stood at 19,208, said Orascom.

Koryolink runs on a 3G WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) technology and is the only operator in the country open to individual subscribers.

During Q2 2009, the operator posted an ARPU of US$22.80, down from $24.70 in Q109. While EBITDA stood at $2.5 million.

Pakistans mobile market according to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has reported a penetration level of 58.5% at the end of July. The mobile segment, in July added 1 million mobile suscribers taking the total mobile subscriber base to 95.55 million.

Of the total base, Mobilink led the market with 29.5 million (31%) subscribers while Telenor stood second with 21.3 million (22%) followed by Ufone with 21% market share.The highest monthly additions were achieved by Mobilink with 414,000 new subscribers followed by Telenor and Warid with 406,000 and 255,000 new subscribers respectively.

­Pakistan's Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications has urged the telecoms regulator, the PTA to ensure protection of consumer rights, reports the local Daily Times newspaper.

"Growth of the telecom sector is important, but consumer satisfaction is more important", was the unanimous view of the committee, which met at Parliament House with Senator Muhammad Idrees Khan Safi in chair.

The Committee also said that telecom companies were making windfall profits but paying little attention to improving service quality, especially in the rural and remote areas of the country.

The committee directed the PTA to play its regulatory role effectively to address outstanding issues, especially those related to service quality. It also instructed that the SIM registration and verification process be carried out vigilantly to avoid any misuse.

According to the Mobile World analysts, the country ended Q1 '09 with just over 91 million mobile phone users, which represents a population share of 52 percent.

­Orascom Telecom has confirmed that its North Korean subsidiary, koryolink's subscriber base stood at 47,850 by the end of Q2. In order to capitalize on the subscriber growth momentum, in the second quarter of 2009 koryolink introduced further reduction in connection fees as well as free SMS for the first time. Additionally, the mix of free minutes was revised to satisfy customer requirements.

Over the second-quarter, while minutes of use rose to 199 per month, the ARPU fell to US$22.8, from US$24.7 in Q1. The financial figure is based on the official exchange rate between the North Korean Won (KPW) and US$.

koryolink retail network currently consists of 2 large sales shops strategically located in downtown Pyongyang with 3 additional scratch card sales outlets located within KPTC post office shops. koryolink plans to expand the indirect sales network through the inauguration of 6 more outlets within KPTC shops. A separate after sales service shop is planned for Q3.

Local news media also added that the company is expanding its network. Citing the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station, the Yonhap News Agency said that fiber-optic cables have been laid in all provinces to "upgrade communication capability and quality" and that mobile communication networks are "being established on a national scale,".

Morocco added 128,222 internet subscribers in the second quarter, for 15 percent quarterly growth to 834,463 at the end of June and 47.29 percent growth versus June 2008, according to telecommunications regulator ANRT.

Of the total internet customers, 50.75 percent are on ADSL and 48.7 percent are on 3G mobile networks. ADSL subscribers were static at 488,567 at the end of June, compared to 489,043 at the end of March.

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Maroc Telecom has a 98.86 percent share of the country's ADSL subscribers, followed by Wana with 0.78 percent. Mobile 3G internet users grew by 38.16 percent to 468,781 at the end of June (195.07 percent growth vs June 2008). Wana has a 63.4 percent share of the 3G internet market, followed by Medi Telecom with 18.38 percent and Maroc Telecom with 18.21 percent. Morocco's fixed telephony market rose by 5.64 percent in Q2 to 3.27 million at the end of June, including 1.96 million on fixed wireless. Fixed line penetration stood at 10.48 percent, up from 9.92 percent three months earlier. Wana has a 60.27 percent share of the fixed telephony market, followed by Maroc Telecom (39.48%) and Medi Telecom (0.25%). Residential fixed telephony customers rose by 6.44 percent to 2.72 million and business fixed telephony customers by 1.78 percent to 387,512. Morocco's mobile telephony market was static at 23.534 million at the end of June, compared to 23.516 million at the end of March.

Maroc Telecom lost market share to rivals Medi Telecom and Wana, but still retains a 60.71 share of mobile customers, ahead of Medi (36.69%) and Wana (2.6%). Specifically, Maroc Telecom's mobile customer base fell by 2.34 percent in the quarter to 14.29 million, whereas Meditel's rose by 3.21 percent to 8.63 million and Wana's by 17.47 percent to 521,000. Some 95.8 percent of the country's mobile customers are on prepaid.

The government of Ghana has signed a USD150 million contract with Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies for the supply of advanced telecoms infrastructure to ensure broadband internet access countrywide within the next two years. The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, told delegates at a conference on Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) that the infrastructure would link internet Points of Presence (PoP) in all district capitals under the government's ICT Backbone Development Programme. The minister added that the government was committed to ensuring it developed the human resources needed to promote the country as a prospect for BPO companies, and said Ghana was working hard to ensure the legislative regime was right encourage inward investment under the e-legislation programme. During the year the Ministry of Communications will also facilitate the development of additional legislations in the area of data protection and intellectual property for investors in the area of data capturing and management to operate within the confines of international guidelines and rules, he said. His words were echoed by Vice President John Dramani Mahama who stressed Ghanas commitment to developing the nations ICT backbone capabilities. In addition to the SAT3 connectivity, Glo 1 and MaiOne will commence the construction of two additional landing stations by the end of this year to take care of the issues of bandwidth redundancy, he said.

BNamericas reports that Ecuador's telecoms watchdog Senatel aims to end 2010 with 9,000 schools connected to the internet via broadband networks under a national scheme, compared to 1,900 today, with 4,000 of the new connections to be made this year. A further 11,000 schools are to be covered by other public-funded social programmes, universal access fund Fodetel told BNamericas, adding that state-run telco Corporacion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CNT) is currently handling all rollouts, and as yet there had been no plans announced to open up tenders to private sector broadband operators. The news site wrote that telecoms regulator Conatel lists ongoing projects to connect 759 schools at a cost of USD4.56 million, or an average of USD6,000 per school.

Hungarys incumbent mobile operators Pannon, T-Mobile and Vodafone collectively reported 635,950 mobile internet subscribers at the end of June, up from 607,479 in May, according to data published by the telecoms regulator NHH. According to the watchdog, Hungarian mobile subscribers sent a total of 763,760GB of data in June, up from 763,178 GB the previous month, while average traffic per subscriber dipped marginally to 1.51GB from 1.52GB the previous month. As at 30 June 2009, T-Mobile's share of mobile data subscribers was 49.01%, while Vodafone followed in second place with 27.85% and Pannon was third with 23.15%. Based on actual traffic volume though, T-Mobile's market share was lower at 41.28%, while Vodafone and Pannon had 35.27% and 23.45%, respectively.

Rwandan daily The New Times is reporting that internet users in the countrys capital Kigali will be able to access WiBro high speed mobile wireless internet by the end of September. The government signed a USD40 million deal with South Korean incumbent telco KT in October 2008 to install the 10,000-user capacity wireless broadband network in the city. Nkubito Bakuramutsa, deputy CEO of IT at the Rwanda Development, commented: Tourists will be able to move from the airport to their hotels while surfing the net and people will be moving in their vehicles while carrying out transactions on their laptops. He said that the wireless broadband project is worth RWF4.5 billion (USD8 million) and added that by December of this year, a RWF22.7 billion fibre-optic backbone project will be rolled out throughout the country. Under the deal signed with KT, the South Korean telco also agreed to install the 2,300km national backbone, which will link 36 main points in Rwanda's 30 districts and is expected to provide affordable high speed broadband internet access to around four million Rwandans within the next two to three years. The project will also increase broadband availability to more than 700 Rwandan institutions, including schools, healthcare centres and local government administrative centres.

According to TeleGeographys GlobalComms database, the KT deal was funded in part by a USD24 million credit line extended to the country by the World Bank as part of its USD424 million Regional Communication Infrastructure Programme, designed to improve the infrastructure of southern and eastern Africa and increase the deployment of e-government in the area

The Estonian government has approved plans to construct a nationwide superfast broadband network, according to local news source Postimees Online. Under the proposals the state expects 90% of the country to have access to the 100Mbps network by 2012, with the remainder of the population to be connected by 2015. Juhan Parts, Estonias minister of economic affairs and communications, also revealed that the government would create an autonomous foundation comprising all major telecommunication providers in the country to oversee the networks development. The state plans to provide significant support for developing the infrastructure; as of now, the states contribution that is required is approximately EEK1 billion (USD91.45 million), the minister noted. It is expected that the government will fund the deployment of infrastructure in those areas, mostly rural and sparsely populated, that are not considered financially feasible by commercial operators.

Venezuelan mobile operator Digitel, which launched 3G services based on 900MHz W-CDMA/HSPA technology in March this year, has launched a package bundling a mobile broadband subscription with a wireless modem and laptop computer provided by Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo, reports BNamericas, quoting local newspaper El Universal. Digitel commercial vice-president Luis Perez said that the company will initially make 1,000 combined packages available initially; the launch echoes moves in the fixed broadband sector, where Venezuelas national PSTN provider CANTV has seen considerable success with its combined PC ownership and ADSL access scheme, which spreads the cost of a computer via monthly payments. Within its first month of 3G operations, Digitel covered 30 districts/towns with its new network, but in May it reportedly deferred expansion plans for the next generation infrastructure until 2010 in the light of the global economic downturn.

For a few days last month Maroc Telecom's parent company Vivendi looked like it might pull off one of the most audacious attempts yet to arrest control of one of the Middle East & Africa's largest mobile operations from the now well-entrenched players. However, Zain, whose Celtel unit was the subject of the interest, could not agree on price with the French company and the chance of a deal - however unlikely most commentators, including your author, thought that to be - now looks to be dead and gone. If a transaction had gone ahead it would most likely have had a significant effect on Maroc Telecom's place in the Vivendi group, with the Moroccan incumbent slotting in as part of a much larger overall portfolio.

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As it is, the company remains Vivendi's sole venture in the emerging markets, and its sole vehicle for growth in Africa. In addition to its home operation and its long-standing subsidiary in Mauritania, Maroc Telecom has expanded into Burkina Faso and Gabon by purchasing the incumbents in these markets, and this year has followed those deals with the agreement to purchase a majority stake in Sotelma, the incumbent telco in Mali. The talks with Zain indicate, however, that management in France is not entirely content with this slow piece-wise expansion strategy.

The mobile business, which accounts for almost two-thirds of Maroc Telecom's MAD14.6bn strong topline, grew by 25.9% in connection terms in the year to 30th June 2008, but by just 5.9% in the most recent 12 months. Strong performances by the regional operators (+26% in Gabon, +30% in Mauritania, +74% in Burkina Faso) have failed to offset an almost complete arrest of growth in Morocco which grew by just 0.5% in the year. With 14.29m customers, the Moroccan business still accounts for 81% of the overall mobile base of 17.55m, whilst its fixed operation contributes 84% of the 1.5m strong landline total.

In revenue terms, the home business is even more dominant with 86% of the mobile turnover and 85% of the fixed - and it is convincingly the most profitable in both departments. In this light it is perhaps no wonder that Maroc Telecom's acquisition in Mali - involving around 1m customers - has failed to satisfy the appetites of the French owners. The question, if Celtel is off the menu, is where they will turn next?

Atlantic Telecom is reported to be facing the suspension of its network in Togo after failing to renew its operating license. The operator's license expired in June 2008, and has been given until 10th August to pay a 20 billion CFA (US$44 million) renewal fee.

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The company is said not to have complied with two decrees spelling out the financial conditions of renewal of its licence. So far, only operators Togo Telecom and Togo Cellular have started carrying out measures in the decrees, the regulator, ARTP reported in a statement on Saturday.

Estimates from the Mobile World analysts shows that the operator ended Q1 '09 with around 530,000 subscribers. The dominant telco is the state owned Togo Cellular, with around 1.25 million customers. France Telecom's Orange seems to have an operating license but has not started services yet.

The opening of a fiber-optic cable providing broadband to millions of people in Southern and Eastern Africa is part of an ambitious plan to expand Internet access and help spur the continents economy and its technology industry. The cable, built by Seacom, a consortium 75 percent controlled by African investors, is the first of about 10 new undersea connections expected to serve Africa before the middle of next year. The expansion will cost about $2.4 billion and will help connect Africa with Europe, Asia and parts of the Middle East at higher speeds and at lower cost.

Right now, Africa has only one submarine fiber-optic cable: the less efficient SAT-3 cable in Western Africa, owned primarily by Telkom, the South African telecom company, and last updated in 2002. Those with no access to that cable are forced to use expensive and slow satellite links.

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Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, a telecommunications market research company, said Africa was the last major area where broadband access was not widespread.

Its completing this international Web of undersea cable, Mr. Mauldin said. From that point of view, it roots high-end countries like Kenya and Uganda into the Western world better than just satellite capacity.

A World Bank report released in June said that access to better information and communication technology corresponded with economic growth. The report said that for every 10 percentage points of increase in high-speed Internet access, economic growth rose 1.3 percentage points.

The technology sector should benefit greatly, analysts said. Outsourcing services like call centers will be able to offer more competitive rates because of lower operating costs, and technology companies will be able to better communicate with clients and partners overseas.

Lindsay McDonald, a telecommunications analyst at Frost & Sullivan in South Africa, said that Africans were stymied by the lack of broadband and that better Internet service was an important platform for new businesses.

The Seacom cable will provide Internet service that is about 10 times faster than any existing service in Africa, said David Lerche, a communications analyst at Avior Research in South Africa.

The 17,000-kilometer, or 10,500-mile, cable, which became operational July 23, cost $650 million and links Eastern and Southern Africa with Europe and Asia.

Within the next year, four more submarine fiber systems are expected to be added in East Africa. The Teams cable, expected to be completed in September, will connect Mombasa to the United Arab Emirates, while the East African Submarine Cable System should be in use by the middle of next year.

Mike Bean, a software developer for IDXonline, a small industrial information technology company in South Africa, said his company paid between $2,000 and $5,000 a month for Internet access. He said the Seacom cable would allow his company to teleconference with partners overseas at a much lower price.

Demand is high for better communication technology in Africa, analysts say. A report released in May by Delta Partners, an advisory and investment firm for media and technology in the Middle East and Africa, said there was potential for the number of broadband users in Africa to expand to 24 million by 2011 from 2.5 million at present. The estimate was based on the percentage of mobile phone users who could afford technology with Internet access.

In West Africa next year, the Glo-1 Cable will link Nigeria and Ghana to Europe, and the Main One cable will link Nigeria and Ghana to Portugal.

However, it could still be several years before access to less expensive broadband connections becomes widely available to individual consumers, said Étienne Lafougère, the general manager for submarine network activity for Alcatel-Lucent, which has been contracted to build the majority of the submarine cables in Africa, including those for the East Africa Submarine Cable System and Teams. He said access depended on local Internet service providers updating technology and adding cables to the main system to reach more isolated areas.

We are building the highways, then you have to build roads and secondary roads, and that usually takes more time, Mr. Lafougère said

Mobily has announced lately that its advanced 3G network coverage has also covered many areas or tourism activity, locations of large businesses, and roads with high traffic rate.

Mobily is currently completing the coverage in the rest of towns and villages in the Kingdom so that all Mobily customers connect the world from anywhere in the Kingdom through high speed wireless internet, provided either the enhanced CONNECT, or through mobile handsets, or iphone devices.

Customers can also enjoy watching TV channels, and communicate through voice and video (video calling) while roaming as well.

Mobily operates the largest 3G network in the Middle East and its network is considered as one of the busiest networks in terms of data transfer which sometimes hit 40 Terabyte daily which made the company enhance its network to meet the increased demand on 3G services.

Mobily has completed coverage of over 80 percent of the inhabited areas in the Kingdom despite the short period since it was launched for the first time in 2005.

Japanese mobile operators added 413,700 new customers in July, to reach a combined total of 108.90 million customers, according to figures from the Telecommunications Carrier Association. NTT DoCoMo took the lead in net additions and added 143,600 subscribers to end the month with 55.07 million. Softbank followed with 137,600 new subscribers, bringing its total to 21.09 million. Emobile signed up 76,100 new subscribers bringing its total to 1.75 million customers. KDDI gained 56,600 new customers and ended July with 31.05 million customers, while PHS provider Willcom shed 18,500 customers to finish July with 4.52 million.

Argentina has reportedly ended the first half of 2009 with 49.2 million mobile lines in service, up 14% year-on-year. In June, the mobile telephony traffic totaled 3.82 billion calls, representing a 30% increase compared to the same period a year ago. Public phones totaled 146,988, an increase of 10.7% in comparison to the same period a year ago.

Vodafone Spain has reportedly renewed its prepaid internet tariffs, by raising them up to 66% the volume of data transfer of its top-ups based on traffic volumes and cutting by as much as 35% the price of its top-ups based on time. Vodafone will now provide three top-ups by volume, the 250 MB Basic product for EUR 19, the 400 MB Advanced for EUR 29 and the 1 GB Premium for EUR 59, which will have a validity period of 3 months. The operators time-based top-ups, offering unlimited data traffic, will now be priced at EUR 19 for 7 days, EUR 29 for 15 days and EUR 49 for 30 days. Vodafones prepaid pack, costing EUR 49, will come with a k3565 USB modem and EUR 19 of credit.

The European Commission's Digital Competitiveness report published today shows that Europe's digital sector has made strong progress since 2005. Over half ( 56%) of Europeans now regularly use the internet, 80% of them via a highspeed connection (compared to only one third in 2004), making Europe the world leader in broadband internet. Europe is the world's first truly mobile continent with more mobile subscribers than citizens (a take up rate of 119%).

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­Building on the potential of the digital economy is essential for Europe's sustainable recovery from the economic crisis. Today the Commission has asked the public what future strategy the EU should adopt to make the digital economy run at full speed.

"Europe's digital economy has tremendous potential to generate huge revenues across all sectors, but to turn this advantage into sustainable growth and new jobs, governments must show leadership by adopting coordinated policies that dismantle existing barriers to new services," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "We should seize the opportunity of a new generation of Europeans who will soon be calling the shots in the European market place. These young people are intensive internet users and are also highly demanding consumers. To release the economic potential of these 'digital natives', we must make access to digital content an easy and fair game."

People aged 16 to 24 are the most active internet users: 73% of them regularly use advanced services to create and share online content, twice the EU population average (35%). 66% of all Europeans under 24 use the internet every day, compared to the EU average of 43%. They also have more advanced internet skills than the rest of the population, according to a Commission study on digital literacy, also released today.

Although the "digital generation" seems reluctant to pay to download or view online content like videos or music (33% say that they are not willing to pay anything at all, which is twice the EU average), in reality twice as many of them have paid for these services compared to the rest of the population (10% of young users, compared to an EU average of 5%). They are also more willing to pay for offers of better service and quality.

Internet use will soar as Europe's "digital natives" begin their professional lives, increasingly shaping and dominating market trends. As traditional business models stall, companies will have to offer services attractive to the next generation of users, while legislators should create the right conditions to facilitate access to new online content while also ensuring remuneration for the creators.

Europe also needs to act more to compete globally. Despite progress, a third of EU citizens have never used the internet. Only 7% of consumers have shopped online in another Member State. Europe is still behind the US and Japan in R&D investments in information and communication technologies (ICT), high-speed broadband communications, and developing innovative markets like online advertising.

Pro-active policy making across the EU must ensure that everyone has a high-speed internet connection and that there is an online single market, where people can easily use online services across borders.

Upcoming challenges for Digital Europe are raised in a public consultation launched by the Commission today, open until 9 October 2009. This is the first step towards a new European ICT strategy which the Commission aims to present in 2010 as part of the next wave of the Lisbon Agenda.

­Landline and mobile telephony losses from VoIP are expected to exceed US$18.4 billion by 2014 in Latin America, reports local research house, Signals Telecom Consulting. Their report also expects that the regional FTTx market will record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.64% in the number of homes passed in the 2009-2014 period. Launch of DOCSIS 3.0 services by CATV operators in Latin America will drive the deployment of VDSL and FTTx solutions.

Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela account for over 88% of the Latin American VoIP market. Increased coverage by UMTS/HSPA networks and prospects for the arrival in the region of LTE networks will encourage landline operator investments intended to increase transmission speeds for their cabled broadband offerings.

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"What we have noted throughout the region is a desire by fixed-line operators and CATV companies to prevent a repeat of the phenomenon of fixed mobile for broadband services substitution. This is combined with a growing trend to differentiate double and triple-play packages not only by means of content but also through higher data transmission speeds. As a result, we detect greater emphasis by operators such as VTR Globalcom in Chile, Telmex Argentina and GVT in Brazil on investment on DOCSIS 3.0, FTTH and FTTN/VDSL respectively. In this scenario, services for Internet connection by means of 3G/4G networks will be positioned as accesses that complement those of their fixed-line counterparts," explained Jose F. Otero, President of Signals Telecom Consulting.

The region's high purchasing-power urban centers - such as Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo- will be the main focus of high-speed broadband growth. One consequence of the increase in broadband access is a greater use of VoIP. For example, operators such as Axtel in Mexico offer VoIP incorporated to commercial packages that include unlimited calls to local destinations and local long-distance and international services. Other operators, such as ETB in Colombia and Megacable in Mexico, also have alliances with VoIP providers such as Net2Phone and Skype, respectively that enable expansion of the potential market for their services.

In the case of mobile networks, it can be seen that the increase in UMTS/HSPA network coverage, the launch of pre-paid flat rate data offerings and the availability of advanced mobile devices will help ensure that wireless VoIP service revenue will exceed US$8 billion by 2014.

These reports highlight the fact that no operator will restrict itself to a single technology platform to offer broadband and/or Pay TV services.

"This will lead to new alliances in the market, reinforcing agreements between DTH service providers such as Dish Networks and DirecTV with other operators in the region. We also expect greater interest in the resale of mobile services under an MVNO system by those cabled broadband service providers wanting to complement their offering with mobile Internet connections. Lastly, the technological development of operators in the region is quite clearly defined. In the mobile segment they will all migrate to 4G by means of LTE, while in the case of cabled networks it has been observed that Telefonica seems to be leaning towards the deployment of FTTH and Telmex will develop its CATV networks on DOCSIS 3.0, while in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico it will also deploy FTTH," Otero concluded.

The report identifies Colombia as the leading candidate for the launch of DOCSIS 3.0 in the next 12 to 18 months. On the other hand, the low level of competition in the Peruvian broadband and Pay TV markets makes it unlikely that a commercial FTTH or DOCSIS 3.0 offering will be made for the residential sector in that country.

According to Allafrica.com, Zambia Telecommunication Company (Zamtel) has invested around USD20 million on the expansion of its fibre-optic network. The telcos fibre network now stretches for 1,500km, and it plans to further extend this to 4,000km as part of a USD48 million project to provide a second international gateway by linking to the East African Submarine System (EASSy) cable. All provincial centres are expected to be connected to the network by 2010, and the telco has said it expects the network development to allow it to reduce the cost of communications for its fixed line subscribers. While Zamtel is utilising its own resources for the bulk of the network rollout, it is also understood that a portion of the funds are being provided by unnamed international institutions.

Ukraines largest mobile operator by subscribers Kyivstar has begun building a high speed fixed access network based on fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) technology in Kiev and Odessa, reports Ukrinform. Vitaliy Vorozhbyt, Kyivstars director of product development, said: At the first stage, the project will involve cities with population of over a million, and then it is planned to extend the network to other regional centres. The company, a majority-owned subsidiary of Norways Telenor, intends ultimately to launch a quad-play package of services combining fixed and mobile voice services, broadband internet access and digital TV. Telenor Executive Vice President Thor Halvorsen said of the Ukrainian FTTB rollout: First we wish to enter the market of internet access services; then we will develop television and voice.

Argentina ended the first half of 2009 with 49.2 million mobile lines in service, up 14% year-on-year, writes BNamericas citing the countrys national statistics bureau Indec. Mobile telephony traffic in June totalled 3.82 billion calls, representing a 30% increase compared to the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, Indec also reports that Argentinas fixed lines totalled 9.4 million at 30 June 2009, up 1% from a year earlier. Local fixed telephony traffic during the month fell 2.2% to 1.25 billion calls, while domestic long distance traffic rose 11.2% to reach 348 million calls. Public phones totaled 146,988, an increase of 10.7% compared to the same period a year earlier.

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